Ted Kennedy: flawed but effective champion of liberalism
The passing of Sen. Edward Moore "Teddy" Kennedy has silenced the greatest liberal voice of the past 50 years and drawn the curtain on an epic generation of a political dynasty.
Ted Kennedy: flawed but effective champion of liberalism
The passing of Sen. Edward Moore “Teddy” Kennedy has silenced the greatest liberal voice of the past 50 years and drawn the curtain on an epic generation of a political dynasty.
Kennedy, 77, who died last night from brain cancer, was the third-longest serving senator in the nation’s history. Although his liberalism was legendary, this Democrat’s true effectiveness was in his ability to compromise with Republicans to get his initiatives enacted into law.
He never quite matched the public’s adoration for his older brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, whose lives were cut short by assassins’ bullets. But Ted Kennedy’s legislative achievements far surpassed the impact of his brothers in the lives of ordinary citizens.
In 47 years in the Senate, Kennedy passed more than 300 laws. Among them are the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which made public places more accessible to the disabled, and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program of 1997, which funded the largest expansion of health insurance coverage for children since the 1960s. The COBRA Act of 1985, signed into law by President Reagan, gave workers the ability to continue health insurance after leaving employment. And Title IX opened up college sports to young women.
He was a lifelong ally of organized labor and a relentless advocate for increasing the minimum wage. Kennedy also was a champion of education; in 2002 he worked with President George W. Bush to enact the No Child Left Behind law. Earlier this year, he teamed with President Obama to enact a law to encourage more national service. When he died, he was still pushing for his longtime goal of universal health care.
He was born into a family that expected and demanded greatness. Father Joe Kennedy planned for one of his sons to become the nation’s first Irish Catholic president; John Kennedy realized that dream in 1961. When JFK was assassinated in 1963, the torch passed to brother Bobby. When RFK, in turn, was cut down in 1968 as he was about to win the Democratic nomination for president, Ted stepped into the spotlight. A generation of Kennedy admirers will always remember his eulogy for his brother, in a trembling voice, honoring a man “who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.”
But Ted Kennedy never matched his brothers’ presidential aspirations. The explanation was found primarily in his undeniable flaws.
Throughout his life, there were times when it seemed the only thing that could stop Ted Kennedy’s achievements was Kennedy himself. A cheating scandal got him expelled from Harvard College. A long night of drinking in Palm Beach in 1991 ended with rape allegations against a nephew, who was ultimately acquitted. The scandal hampered the senator’s effectiveness in Congress for years afterward.
But the reckless act that dogged Kennedy his entire career took place at Chappaquiddick, Martha’s Vineyard, in 1969. After a party, the married Kennedy drove off a short wooden bridge with a young woman passenger in the car. The car sank into the inlet below and the woman, Mary Jo Kopechne, a Pennsylvania native, drowned. Kennedy swam to safety but did not notify authorities until after her body was discovered the next day.
Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and received a two-month suspended sentence. He won reelection to the Senate from Massachusetts the following year, but Chappaquiddick ended his presidential hopes until 1980, when he lost to President Carter in the Democratic primary.
Despite such self-inflicted scandals, Kennedy always rededicated himself to work harder in the Senate, renewing his focus on improving conditions for average Americans. Accomplishments such as the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996, which forced insurers to treat the mentally ill more fairly, and the Ryan White Care Act, which enabled low-income AIDS patients to receive better treatment, are part of his compassionate legacy.
Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in July 2009, but Kennedy was too ill to attend the ceremony. In recent months, his illness kept him from his duties in the Senate where his voice had boomed on behalf of the disadvantaged for so many decades.
For millions of Americans, Ted Kennedy made this country a fairer and better place to live. His leadership will be missed.
Of course the Inky would feel this way. The world is better off without him or his father. How old would Mary Jo have been???? And Frank Castle, your post is RIGHT ON.— patp- He got away with murder. This is more than flawed.— david wayne
- The fat scum bag is now going to be canonized by Obama in a effort to get his health care boondoggle passed. Just remember that Uncle Teddy always had the best PRIVATE HEALTH CARE money can buy. Rot in hell— hawk
- Raiderfan: you call us disrespectful towards someone that got away with murder- he drove Mary Jo off of a dock and left her for dead!! HOW CAN ANYONE RESPECT A MURDERER; HE SHOWED OJ THE WAY!!!! He stayed in government because of his name.. He should rot!— ttamb
Again, it is obvious why you people need guns. To protect yourselves from the people who have to live with you in this country and keep them from tearing you and everyone who thinks like you to little pieces.- it's crass to speak ill of the dead, but all you need to know about Sen. Kennedy is what you saw last week. He made an impassioned plea to change a law regarding succession for purely politcal reasons...not "to give MA two voices". He lobbied to change the law in 2004 so that Gov. Romney would be unable to appoint a successor in case of a Kerry victory. He's been ill the last year. If he tryly cared for his MA consituents rather than the Dem party and himself he would have stepped down. Rather than do that, he hung on until near death so that no one would want to not listen to a dying man's last impassioned plea. And for what? One more measily vote on a flawed HC plan. Disgusting actions in a life with more disgusting actions than a man of his breeding and stature should have.— Dopespotter
- Random thoughts, Its hard to criticize a guy with a target on his back since 1968 ..even with Chapaquidick the next year...it's interesting, I'd forgotten it was a couple of days before the Moon landing, I disliked him challenging an incumbent Democrat, I believe that gave us Reagan, the pause in liberalism, and introduction of "me first" and "head in the sand" America.— robinlupe
Comment removed.- It is not only the disrespect but the hate and venom evidenced by these posts. Why must you hate others who do not agree with you? Can't you disagree without being disagreeable?— mxlplk
- George W. Bush - a flawed but effective champion of stupidity and greed. And while the late Senator Kennedy was responsible for 1 death and should have been charged for it, W was responsible for thousands of innocent people dying yet few people say a word. Ronald Reagan, another flawed icon who actually traded drugs with terrorists! Yet when he passed there was none of this venom.— Malcolm65
- I don't agree with much of what Ted Kennedy did, but it's a bit ridiculous to think that he would have spent 40 years in jail for the death of Kopechne. Keep in mind that he also had to run for re-election every 6 years and the people of Massachusetts kept re-electing him. If you want to really express your scorn, why not show it towards the people that kept putting him back in office?— catnameddomino
- Comment removed.
- Posted by Shabba Rommel 10:41 AM, 08/26/2009 oakster and the rest of you bleeding heart liberals: U R all dopes. Oakster to your statement, the NAZI's were defeated (and most died). Your analogy is tenuous at best.quote.>>> Where did I make an analogy?— oakster
- Goodriddence. Maybe he caught a glimpse of MaryJoe on his way out. Many earlier comments capture my feelings also. His family wealth allowed him to live a life of privilege and to champion rules and laws that really didn't apply to him or the Kennedy clan. Now we only have a few more members of the elite "Royal Family" left to burden us.— naplesfan
- Kennedy was an idiot who tried to drown his self imposed guilt of wealth by stealing from hard working Americans to give to those poor wretches of society that are the product of liberal welfare. Note; not the needy, just the lazy. He will have his place in hell.— jalinsgs
